The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisisat amazon.com writes:
The question Jared Diamond asked, " What did the people on Easter Island think as they cut down the last tree?" resonates throughout this book ...
We are a nation of cover-up artists.
Giant Oil Spill Threatens Alternative Energy Legislation. Wait, What?
Copenhagen Climate Talks Already In Trouble. Guess Why.Way to go Obama and our oh so self important Senators, the Dems as well as the Thugs ...
What this tells me is that annual temperature is indeed noisy: there have been many large fluctuations, indeed much larger than the up-and-down in the last decade or so. But the direction of change is unmistakable if you take the longer view. The fitted line in the figure is a 3rd-degree polynomial, but any sort of smoothing would tell you that there is a massive upward trend.The only reason I can figure for political recalcitrance on this matter is that politicians hate their children. Could there be another reason?
Of course, trend-spotting is no substitute for causal modeling; and the models are getting truly scary in their implications.
Here industrial food production has stripped away 1/3 of our nation's top soil, destroyed (and continues to destroy) tens of millions of acres of healthy living soil and its critical biological diversity, introduced synthetic chemicals into the environment which individually and collectively reduce both ecological and human health, pursues monoculture practices with GMO technologies without any idea of its long term impact on ecological and human health, made our food supply dependent on foreign energy, and relies on antibiotics (70% of all antibiotic use) to allow for the industrial production of genetically similar (or identical) animals.
"Dry toilets are essentially outhouses brought indoors." Michael FumentoHe writes books too! The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS is one. But what's really impressive: "He co-authored [a] monograph with Michelle Malkin, entitled Rachel's Folly: The End of Chlorine ..."
"Yes, parts of the underdeveloped world have severe water shortages but have you been to Arizona lately? Word has it they have some mighty fine flush toilets there." Michael Fumento
"Further, while water is a natural resource it's not something that you can actually use up like ore or fossil fuels. Water always remains water; reusing it is just a matter of cleaning it." Michael Fumento
Link: The Battle over Toilets for All by Michael Fumento, Scripps Howard News Service, January 15, 2004, Copyright 2004 Scripps Howard, Inc.
Crop Scientists Say Biotechnology Seed Companies Are Thwarting Research.
"The growers’ agreement from Syngenta not only prohibits research in general but specifically says a seed buyer cannot compare Syngenta’s product with any rival crop. ...In other words, just eat our genetically modified foodstuffs and be quiet while our experiment on the world works itself out.
[ ... ]
"Dr. Shields of Cornell said financing for agricultural research had gradually shifted from the public sector to the private sector. That makes many scientists at universities dependent on financing or technical cooperation from the big seed companies. “People are afraid of being blacklisted,” he said. “If your sole job is to work on corn insects and you need the latest corn varieties and the companies decide not to give it to you, you can’t do your job".”
| Today's QUOTES: | What the Daddy party, remember that Republican self assigned moniker, has turned into: If this is “daddy,” it’s the dad on the billboard who owes 10 years’ worth of child support and who bears facial scars from the misfortune of being hunched over the meth lab when it exploded. --ROLE REVERSAL by Ed, ginandtacos.com Banksters are indignant that they actually have to be accountable to anyone. They'd rather have to lay off entire floors of office workers than have to give back their precious penthouses. It's a very elite perspective. --How Dare You Hand Me $25 Billion Dollars! by dday, Hullabaloo ... One of the things that creeps me out about the political system’s response to the crisis so far – the insolvency of the banking system in particular – are the increasingly desperate attempts to maintain a phony façade of free markets and private enterprise, in an economy now utterly dependent on the federal safety net. I totally expected that from Hank Paulson and the Cheney Administration, but is Obama’s financial team really pressed from exactly the same Wall Street mold? [...] It’s not a good sign when societies routinely lie to themselves about such big, fundamental truths, which in turn suggests that toxic assets may not be the poison we most need to worry about ... --Chocolate Covered Cotton by billmon, dailykos.com |
Quotes from the Tucson Citizen -- UA prof: Global warming hitting Southwest via Arizona Geology -- Southwest to get more droughts, floods, & fires.Our region has already begun to heat up, Overpeck said.
"The warming has already been about 2 degrees Fahrenheit . . . That's kinda scary," he told the audience in an opening statement. "It's affecting the Southwest of the United States more than any other area outside of Alaska."
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We will have more fire and insect outbreaks, erosion from wind and water and competition among plants from non-native species, especially grasses, Breshears said.One key problem is fire combined with non-native grasses, such as buffelgrass. When buffelgrass burns, it kills native plants, leaving more room for more grass. With each burn, more of the desert dies and more grass spreads.
"We're setting up a feedback that is very difficult to get out of," Breshears said.
Climate change even threatens to eradicate our "megaflora" of the Southwest, such as Joshua trees and saguaro cactuses. Buffelgrass kills young saguaros by blocking sun and sucking up the water the budding behemoths need.
"That's a pretty grim forecast for Tucson," Breshears said.
Despite thousands of scientists studying climate change, major questions about the Southwest remain unanswered, Overpeck said.
"One of the things we can't say is whether the monsoon will get stronger or weaker - the models are all over the place," he said.
Obama’s Own Estimate of Employment Growth is Underwhelming
... why is Pelosi telling Energy & Environment News that the House won't be getting around to climate legislation this year? (Sub. reqd. for E&E, so forgive the link to National Review's "Planet Gore" denial site. They think this is a sign that the planet's actually cooling and Democrats are quietly burying the issue. Someone forgot to tell the scientists!)
Arizona Geology: The U.S. Office of Surface Mining issued a revised permit that allows Peabody Coal to combine the Kayenta mine and now-closed Black Mesa mine despite opposition from environmental groups and members of the Navajo and Hopi tribes. ...Didn't know there was a US Office of Surface Mining but no doubt the office was created and staffed for the purpose of approving whatever the mining industry wants by those who were, are or will be in the pay of the mining industry.
| Today's QUOTES: |
Santa Cruz River effluent designated 'navigable'
Justice Stephen Breyer: "I thought the whole point of the armed forces was to hurt the environment."and
Justice Samuel Alito: There is "something incredibly odd" about a trial judge making a decision "contrary" to the Navy's requirements.and
Justice Stephen Breyer: "an admiral (who) comes along with an affidavit that seems plausible" might outrank a "district judge who just says" the training should stop.Outrank? When did judges start reporting to the military which reports to the President. Oh, 9-11, that's right, how could I forget?
